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Posts Tagged ‘Circle Scissors Plus’
Just Two Days Before Christmas!
Aloha, all!
On Monday I posted that I was making last minute Christmas Cards and hoping to get them in the mail on Tuesday! Well, a few did get into the mail Tuesday, but my list kept growing as the mail came IN, and the last of those cards aren't going into the mail until today. There are two destined for Hawaii addresses, and they may actually get there tomorrow. But the rest of those cards aren't going to be in anyone's mailbox until NEXT Tuesday at the earliest.
Today's cards are three of those that were in Monday's picture. For all three I had two purposes in mind: (1) Get some cards done with that dynamite new set, Snow Much Fun! This was one of the sets that we could preorder from the 2011-2012 Stampin' Up! catalog, and I just had to have it! Then along came the Holiday Mini Catalog, and this went on the back burner. Until Monday, when out they came. Purpose (2) was to make use of my 2011 Greeting Layout eBook so I didn't have to reinvent the wheel (layout, that is).
So here we go with Card #1: I just love the little bird rolling that snowball along fast and furiously! He looks as tired as he should be after making that big ball! He's soon going to join his friends with that smiling snowman. The layout is the same layout as on page 45 of my Card Layout eBook, just turned sideways. I used Riding Hood Red and Old Olive for the main colors for this card as those were the colors I had out to go with the designer series paper I had out on the table at the moment. I highlighted the "shadows" that are part of the stamp itself with some Marina Mist ink that I applied with a Blender Pen. All of the circles for the little snowball bird were cut with my Circle Scissors Plus. Boy did that get a workout this Christmas season! Peeking out from the background layer is striped paper that, while not Old Olive, does complement the colors in the snowman's scarf. If you don't recognize the paper from the Christmas papers this year, it's because it's one of the designs in the Spice Cake Designer Series Paper Set. So if you've run out of Christmas paper, you might check out whatever you have left of Spice Cake!
For my second card of the day, I turned to the Christmas Tree that's in the same stamp set – and once again with a cute little bird! She's topping that tree with her bright little Robin Hood Red coloring that accents the decorative balls with the same colors. The tree itself is all Old Olive applied with a blender pen. Those blender pens are awesome when you want to do some shading as I did with this tree. I wanted the green to be darker in some areas to look like there was a bit or shadow and I could do that with no problem at all! The papers for this card came from Letters to Santa in the main Catalog (you can't see these colors if you look at the catalog; but they're the main patterns on the pages with the Santa and the Merry and Bright images. Lovely paper with a muted diagonal stripe. The strip on the background layer is from one of the papers in the Christmas Lane Simply Scrappin' Kit. Can you tell I'm scrounging all over for the last remnants of my holiday papers? You bet – this is where I want to be when a season is about to be over!
The pattern for this card is the same as that on page 35 of my 2011 Greeting Card Layout eBook, and again I turned it 90 degrees. These layouts are SOO flexible!
Finally my third card goes back to the little bird running with that snowball, but this time paired up with the snowman who's about to throw his own snowball. You don't suppose he's going to throw it at the bird, do you? Of course not; I think they're both aiming for the same point! The paper for this card is another sheet from the Letters to Santa designer series paper set, and the ribbon and background circles are all Riding Hood Red to coordinate with it. I started to add some colors to the stocking cap worn by Mr. Snowman, but decided to just leave this as a red and white card, with the little bit of Marina Mist shadowing that lovely white snow! This card is from page 43 of my Greeting Cad Layout eBook!
So there are my cards for Monday. Tomorrow I'll share some cards that I made to get rid of another part of my Holiday Mini stash! I hope you're having fun watching me scramble around doing last minute stuff I could have done a month ago. But what fun would that have been?!
Subscribe to the comments for this postLast Minute Christmas Cards!
Aloha, all!
Yes, today is officially the "last minute" for me to get my Christmas Cards made. I needed a break for a bit, so I thought I'd take the time to show you what I've accomplished so far between my class projects for last Saturday and the cards that I made today.
As you can see, I got out the Stampin' Up! stamp sets that I've not used AT ALL this season. I'm not sure why I think I'll use all my Christmas sets every year when I end up falling in love with two or three and leaving the others to languish in my craft room closet. But that's what happens! This year it was even worse when I realized that three of the first sets that I bought this season hadn't even been mounted to make them ready to use! The sets are Snow Much Fun, Merry and Type, and Forest Festivities. The first two are in the "big" catalog and the third is in this year's Holiday Mini Catalog.
One fun part of today's big push to get the cards made was to grab some sketches from my Greeting Card Layout eBooks to use for the projects. The three on the back row on the left use sketches from the New 2011 Greeting Card Layout eBook. Another card is made from a sketch I CASEd from a card made by another Stampin' Up! demonstrator (I'll find her name before I focus on that card), and the others are new sketches for me. Already the 2012 eBook is taking shape! (To purchase either of the eBooks, just click on a link over at the right to get more information and to see a sample from each book.)
As the week goes on, I'll share more detail about as many of the cards as I can fit in. For now, it's back to card-making 'cuz these babies have to go in the mail TOMORROW!!!
My Favorite Holiday Colors
Aloha, all!
The Stampin' Up! Only Challenge theme this time around is as the title of this blog post states – I'm supposed to have created a card or other project using my favorite December holiday colors! Every year I go through this same argument with myself: Is it Red/Green or Blue/Silver? If you look around at what I've been making over the past couple of months since the Stampin' Up! Holiday Mini Catalog was released, you'll see a lot of Red and Green. So this time around, I decided that, at least for today, my favorite color combo is Blue and Silver!
And it's not the dark blue that I've used in the past – Stampin' Up!'s Night of Navy. No, this time around I wanted something a bit brighter, so I decided on Marina Mist. Actually, in the Stampin' Up! color galaxy, Marina Mist is one of the "Subtle" colors. But it surely did look bright enough for me to pair with the silver.
And I wanted this card to SPARKLE! So I needed lots of glitter. The Silver Star was easy because I could just cut that out of Stampin' Up!'s new Silver Glimmer Paper. No muss, no fuss with that star! But the Marina Mist star was going to be slightly more work. I covered a square of Marina Mist Card Stock with VersaMark ink and Heat and Stick Powder and, after the heating part of the routine, sprinkled it liberally with Dazzling Diamonds glitter. I used my heat tool again to set the dazzling diamonds into the heat and stick powder and then ran the square through the Sizzix Big Shot with the Stars #2 Die, as I had with the Silver Star. There was a bit of the sparkling blue card stock left, so I cut a small star out, too.
I decided to try to use the Pines and Poinsettias stamp set with the poinsettias and rose, even though I wasn't sure how it would work in blue. I think it came out lovely! I actually stamped it twice, once on some Whisper White Card Stock using VersaMark and then Silver Embossing Powder, and once with the Marina Mist Classic Stampin' Pad, from which I cut out just the flowers. I then adhered the flowers on top of the silver part of the first image.
I cut the circle with the Circle Scissors, so I'm not sure what the final measurement is. I put the stamped image under the Circle Scissors and adjusted the center and diameter of the circle until it was just where I wanted it.
To give the white circle a bit of texture, I stamped some snowflakes using the snowflake stamp in the Jolly Bingo Bits stamp set, and then sponged the edges.
No ribbon this time around – but I did add some of the Marina Mist and Silver Glimmer Brads and a few Basic Rhinestones to finish the glittery look off!
Now I'm seriously into my Christmas crafting. I hope you're getting into the holiday spirit with your crafting, too – and having fun with it!
A Bright Birthday!
Aloha, all!
This past week one of the leaders of an online group to which I belong had a birthday and she challenged the group to make a Birthday Card using the Brights Colors from Stampin' Up! As it had been awhile since I'd focused on the colors in that group, I decided to accept the challenge.
There was also a discussion going on in yet another group about the value of the Circle Scissors Plus, which is also sold as a Stampin' Up! product. Add to that my wish to use up some of my Stampin' Up! retiring accessories, and this is the card that resulted!
Let's start with the colors. The Brights Colors that I used for this card are Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, and Pacific Point. I do think that they make a very cheerful birthday card, and I should try to use them more for birthdays.
Then there are the retiring products. Rats! I love so many of them! First there's that luscious Daffodil Delight 5/8" Satin Ribbon. Satin Ribbon will still be around, but not in the Daffodil Delight color. Then there are two of my favorite Designer Series Paper sets, Sweet and Sour and Blueberry Crisp. The Sweet and Sour is a specialty paper that has some shiny swirls on one side of the double-sided printed paper. There will not be any specialty paper in the new catalog that has this feature (though there will be one set with some metallic highlights). The Blueberry Crisp has several blues in it, but this particular piece is all Pacific Point, so nice and, well, bright!
Both stamp sets that I used in this set will continue into the new Stampin' Up! 2011-2012 Idea Book and Catalog: Crazy for Cupcakes and Teeny Tiny Wishes. I colored in the "cupcake papers" with Pacific Point, but I used a Blender Pen instead of a Stampin' Write Marker to lighten the ink up a bit. Nice touch, I think!
Finally the circles: For the top (stamped) circle and the back (Daffodil Delight) circle, I used the Sizzix 3" and 3-1/2" circle dies, respectively. But I don't like that large 1/4" space between layers. Since there is neither a Sizzix Die nor a punch that's 3-1/4" round, I needed to turn to my Circle Scissors Plus. (The "plus" in this product is that you can use this for drawing circles as well as cutting them; more about that another time). I set the cutting blade for a 3-1/4" circle and, voila! There you have it.
Here is the sketch for this card. I've been having fun lately making square cards, and I'm going to have to order more Stampin' Up! Medium Square Envelopes (they're 5-1/2" square) so I can start sending some of these cards out! I hope that you don't just hoard your cards, and have fun sending them out to your friends, too!
Wedding “Rings”
Aloha, all!
Actually, these circles are not wedding "rings," but they made me think of intertwined wedding rings, which is why I made this into a wedding card. You see, this is one of those cards that started with an idea of a layout and I wasn't really sure where I was going with it. I knew what colors and Designer Series Paper I was going to use, and I knew I was going to made the circles. Beyond that, it was a mystery!
Then I started looking through my stamp sets and came across this greeting from the Hostess Set, Occasional Quotes. (Boy, am I going to be missing this set when it retires for good at the end of this month!) Once I decided to make this a wedding card, then it was easy to pick out the 5/8" Organza Ribbon and the Basic Rhinestones to decorate the card. As I started to put it together it occurred to me that some texture in the background might be just the thing to make the card perfect, and I chose the Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder for that.
This is my first card for the group, SUOnly Challenges. This challenge requires that I use only Stampin' Up! products (thus the "SU"). That's not hard for me to do because that's all I have! But you may be wondering about all those circles and how they're Stampin' Up! only. The two larger circles are both Sizzix Dies – the 3-1/2" and 3" Circles Originals Sizzix Dies introduced in the 2011 Occasions Mini Catalog and still available. The larger of the two smaller circles was made with the 2-1/2" Circle Punch also in the Occasions Mini Catalog and also still available. All three will be in the new 2011-2012 Idea Book & Catalog. I made the 2" circle on which the greeting is stamped with the Circle Scissors Plus circle cutter. So – all Stampin' Up!
Note that on this card, I first adhered and overlapped the larger circle in both sets of circles. Then I adhered the Designer Series Paper (From the Garden DSP) and finally the circle with the stamped greeting. Here's another card I made with the same layout, but I overlapped the circles differently.
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For this card, I first adhered the two largest circles (the 3-1/2" and 3" circles) together, and adhered them to the card. Then I adhered the two smaller circles together and laid them on top of the larger set of circles. It's a bit of a different look and you might try both layouts on your own cards to see which you like better with the papers and greetings that you use.
I hope that those of you who also use Stampin' Up! products will visit the the SUOnly Challenge blog and enter your card in their bi-weekly competition! If you'd like to try my layout, here's the sketch for you to use! I hope you have fun with it!!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Aloha, all!
I hope you are having a wonderful day today, filled with warmth and the love of your friends and family. We are having a quiet day at home with our fur children and will be talking on the phone with our 2-legged family members as the day goes on. With our health improving every day, and with both of us involved in so many activities that we enjoy so much, we truly have so very much for which to be thankful this Thanksgiving Day.
Oh, I can't just stop and not tell you how I made this! I used the Sizzix Scallop Circle Die to make the basic card. I folded the Cajun Craze card stock before cutting it and skootched the folded side down beneath one side of the die's blades so that it wouldn't get cut. The Old Olive scalloped mat is cut from the Sizzix Scallop Circle #2 Die. Finally, I used my Circle Scissors Plus to cut a circle around one motif from my last sheet of Autumn Spice Specialty Designer Paper, and also to cut a slight larger mat for that motif. A Glimmer Brad in the center set it all office nicely, and holds a greeting from the Teeny Tiny Wishes Stamp Set. To top this off (literally?) is a piece of Old Olive 5/8" Satin Ribbon.
A bit of a sneak peek at what's coming in Stampin' Up! – it looks like those Glimmer Brads will be around for at least another 5 months as I saw their little heads peeking out of the Occasions Mini Catalog. You'll be hearing more from me about that come early December!
What A Wonderful Blog Tour That Was!
Aloha, all!
And a special "Thank You" to all of you who visited my blog during the 2010 Royal Blog Tour. I have to confess that I didn't make it to all of the blogs. But I'll be checking them out from time to time as the week goes on. While most of us will have new blog posts going up right after the tour, most of those wonderful projects will still be around to share.
Here are a couple of additional photos of the box that I made to hold the stationery set that I featured on my tour post, and here are the instructions for making it. It's really very simple to make, despite the number of scores that have to be made on the box itself. Haul out that Stampin' Up! Fiskars paper cutter, pop in the scoring blade and off you go! As I promised, here are the instructions for making the box. I did not include the embellishments because you'll be making your own to match your own card design. It's really just like making the front of a greeting card, and that's always lots of fun!
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I wish I could say that this was my original design. It's not, but I have no idea whose design it is! I've hunted around the Internet and asked a few fellow demonstrators if they know, and so far I've learned nothing. Once I do, I'll be sure to give her (him?) credit! But the set of instructions is my own, and you should feel free to use it as much as you wish!
One Last Thanksgiving Card!
Aloha, all!
If this card seems to have a lot of the elements of yesterday’s card–well, it does! I thought I had all my Thanksgiving cards in the mail this morning before we went off on a day trip. Then I realized in horror (well, maybe not that bad, but still….) that I’d forgotten one very important family for whom I’d not made a card. We arrived home late this evening, and I wondered what I should make. I had left all my "stuff" from yesterday’s card out on my craft room table (BAAAD Robin!). So there was all this paper and these markers and the stamp from Gobble, Gobble (yes, I had cleaned my stamp–of course, I’d do that!).
But first, I had to check my e-mail for some business things for which I was waiting. And there in my in box was an e-mail referring to a Challenge sketch. Ah ha!!! There was my idea, and here is my card. The Autumn Traditions Paper, with its colors, are the same as in yesterday’s card. But it’s definitely its own card, and I feel confident that the family that gets this card will certainly feel that it has an original! One thing that I did differently with this card is to punch the turkey from Gobble, Gobble, with the Scallop Circle Punch, and mat it on a 2" circle that I cut with the Circle Scissors Plus. I’d put my Circle Scissors away a few weeks back. But now it’s back on a table in the craft room as I’m sure I’m going to need it as I make Christmas gifts throughout the next few weeks.
As I said before, we’re having company for the Thanksgiving holiday. So I’m thinking that I’ll need some decorations for the Holiday Table. I’m really hoping that I’ll have time for that after our guests arrive day after tomorrow. If so, I’ll definitely be sharing them here! If not, well, I’ll find something else to share with you.
Have a great Thanksgiving Week!
Convention Swaps!
Aloha, all!
Long ago I decided that I was NOT going to do swaps for this convention. For one thing, I just didn’t have that good an experience at last year’s convention with my swaps. For another thing, I was getting ready for my Convention Late Night Stampers demonstration, and we have a new puppy (check out his blog!), and DH has not been feeling well. So swaps were not in the picture.
BUT, I found by Saturday that I was just about caught up (well, so I thought, but more about that in a moment). So I decided that I would, indeed, make some swaps. Not many, you understand. Who knew what might come up at the last minute. But I did get my craft room cleaned up from all the stuff I’d been doing the last couple of weeks, and came up with a design. As I mentioned last week, I just love the Hibiscus in Greenhouse Garden. We have so many of those lovely flowering shrubs throughout our Hawaiian garden, that I knew that this stamp set would be a keeper (meaning, I will NOT get rid of it when it retires.)
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So, as I write this, my swaps are not done. But, once again, life has gotten in the way. BUT all the adhesives are adhered, and I WILL finish these before convention opens on Wednesday. I may be finishing them as I wait in line at Memento Mall. But I will be swapping! Here’s a copy of the finished card, and the condition of all the various parts.
Oh–and what I used for the swap: Greenhouse Garden, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Sizzix Scallops #2 die, Modern Label Punch, Sizzix Stampin’ Up! Movers and Shapers Punch Windows die, Circle Scissors Plus, Regal Rose and Garden Green (well, isn’t that appropriate) card stock, and a Stampin’ Up! Sizzix Texturz plate.
Later this week, I’ll share some of the cards that I received in return from my swaps. They will all be wonderful!
The Final Piece of the 90th Birthday Card
Aloha, all!
When I made the card for Marian’s 90th Birthday, I wanted it to be richly colorful. So I definitely did NOT want to have the inside of the card be plain white or to add another layer of card stock. After all, with the pop up, the card was plenty thick as it was. But writing a note on a color such as Rich Razzleberry would have been a challenge (lots of them in the card, huh?!). I’ve never been really successful with a lot of writing with a gel pen.
So I decided to use my computer to write a greeting for Marian, and to make two medallions on either side of the cake. The circle shapes are a nice complement to the circular shape of the cake, too.
Both medallions are constructed the same. The one on the left is featured here, and has the words, "Happy 90th Birthday, Marian" in a circle (Microsoft Office has a WordArt feature that makes this nice, circular text). I cut the text (printed on Whisper White card stock), the Rich Razzleberry card stock mat, and the Razzleberry Lemonade DSP mat using the Circle Scissors Plus. The Circle Scissors Plus does such a nice job of making a mat just every so slightly larger than the layer above. I love it! I cut some more Rich Razzleberry card stock using the Scallop Circle Punch, and topped it off with a piece of the Razzleberry Lemonade DSP punched with the Boho Blossoms Punch. I was careful in the placement of the Boho Blossoms Punch so that I could have a nice, medallion-type design in the center of the cut piece.
The medallion on the right side of the card says, "From Robin & Harry."
Now back to work getting ready for my trip to Salt Lake City! Stampin’ Up! convention here I come! I leave Monday night and arrive on Tuesday morning. This is the same flight I took last year, and it turned out not to be too bad. I slept well on the plane and was ready for convention check in. I did somewhat collapse that evening, though. So this year I’m going a day early, so should have a lot more energy on check in day Wednesday!
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